Concerto for Lawrence
by MistWraith
Summary: Written for the KazCon fiction contest. Since the Con was held in Lawrence, the stories had to center around Lawrence/"In The Beginning." 4 missing/tag scenes. COMPLETE, but will be posted by scene. Last scene--short tag--now up! Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1: Allegro Furiouso

**Disclaimer**: Wishin' and hopin' and prayin'…and still nothin'

**A/N**: This was written for this year's KazCon contest. It's really two missing scenes and two tags for "In The Beginning" (KazCon is held in Lawrence, so the stories had to center around this season's only Lawrence episode). Because they're really four separate mini-stories, I'm posting them separately, even though they aren't very long. They should all be posted over the next 7-10 days. Hope you like them.

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**CONCERTO FOR LAWRENCE**

BY: **MistWraith**

_**1. Allegro Furiouso**_

Dean floored the accelerator, not that it mattered all that much in a damn Pinto. More than ever, he wished he was driving his baby. This thing wasn't much better than the four-legged kind of horsepower.

He glanced briefly at the weapon resting on the seat next to him. It looked no more dangerous than an ordinary gun. A collector would probably admire the unusual design on the barrel, though he would puzzle over the incised pentagrams and the inscription. "Non timebo mala." "I do not fear evil."

"Glad that makes one of us," Dean muttered.

Elkins had surprised him. The hunter had trusted him, a stranger. Had let him leave with the Colt. Most of the hunters Dean had run across were suspicious by nature. He couldn't imagine any of them letting an unknown walk off with something like this weapon. He'd gotten the impression, back—_ahead_---in 2006 that Elkins was a hermit, and more than a bit loony to boot. A warning, maybe, about what growing old as a hunter could do to you. Good thing Dean never intended to be an old hunter. Or an old anything, for that matter.

And somewhere along the way, his Dad and Elkins had had a falling out—_well, now, wasn't __**that**__ a surprise!_—because for some reason, Elkins wouldn't tell Dad he had the gun. Dean wondered briefly why, but, hell, this was Dad they were talking about and Job probably would have taken a spear to Dad if they'd ever met.

His eyes fell on the dashboard clock and his lips thinned in a grim smile. Too much time already lost. He didn't want to give that yellow-eyed son-of-a-bitch a chance to take off. Finding him again might be impossible, especially as he didn't know how long Castiel would keep him here in the past. His anger flared. Damn Castiel, for putting him in this position and then trying to make him feel guilty about taking action! He didn't need some I-haven't-been-among-humans-in-two-thousand-years angelic dick to remind him about the flip side of stopping the demon. That his family wouldn't become hunters and people would die. But, damn it, it wasn't like the time with the Djinn. This time, there was a balance, because Azazel wouldn't be there to destroy all the people he would if he lived.

And Dean couldn't just let his family pay the price a second time. He'd done it once, but not again. He could give his mother her dearest wish.

"**You know the worst thing I can think of - the **_**very**_** worst thing -- is for my children to be raised into this, like I was."**

He brushed a shaky hand across his suddenly-watery eyes. One thing he had always held onto was that he was doing good by hunting and his mother would have been proud of that, if she'd known.

He thought of his father. _Did you know, you obsessed son-of-a-bitch? Yeah, she probably didn't tell you about her family, but did you ever figure anything out, huh? After the fire, after everything went down? Did you have any idea that what you did was the __**last**__ thing she would have wanted? That turning her kids into hunters would have destroyed her? Then again, in the end, it wasn't about Mom anymore, was it? It was about you and __**your**__ vengeance!_

_Damn you, Dad. Damn you for destroying it all._

The solitary Pinto raced on, toward a meeting with his past and his future.


	2. Chapter 2 Con moto di reazione forte

**Disclaimer**: The Pretty still are not mine. There's no justice in the world.

**A/N**: This is Missing Scene #2, John and Mary. I have to apologize for not replying to most of the reviews yet: initially, I couldn't get to them. It kept saying there weren't any (and that including attempts to reply to reviews in my email inbox)! I'd hoped to do it last night, but I was so tired, I crawled into bed at the time you usually tuck a six-year old in. g I promise to get to them as soon as I can.

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_**2. Con moto di reazione forte**_

Mary stood in front of her house, pacing, checking the street again, willing John to hurry. She could not race away fast enough from the carnage she had left behind at the farm, from the monster with the yellow eyes; and she wanted to be gone before her father and that Dean Van Halen realized she was leaving. Not just from her house, but from this life, from hunting, from all the evil in the dark.

The growl of a powerful engine, growing steadily louder, brought her to attention, every nerve as taut as a high-tension wire. She barely waited for the Impala to stop before she jumped into the passenger seat. She didn't even look at him, just whispered, "Drive, John. Anywhere. _Please_."

He pulled away from the curb and pointed the Impala out of town. Mary could feel him glance over at her but she wouldn't meet his eyes, staring instead ahead at the night-shrouded road. He turned his gaze back to the way ahead. Shadowy trees raced by them, taking on strange and ominous shapes. Even as she watched, it all _changed_.

Suddenly, it wasn't the road, the familiar forest and fields beyond, but darkness and a hail of images. It was fire and a figure in white burning on a ceiling. Eyes, yellow, black, red, white, all of them cold and inhuman. Things out of nightmares, in the dark, in the shadows. A man, weary, vengeful, unable to rest, while two boys grew to men in the midst of a maelstrom, all the faces lost in shadow.

Mary gasped, a fear she had not known even in the worst hunts slicing through her, and John placed a hand on her arm. "Mary? What is it?"

The warmth of his touch cut through the vision or whatever the hell it was and the familiar road was back. The world regained focus and she gave a nervous huff. What was _that_? Nothing like that had ever happened to her before.

She took a deep breath and pushed her terror back. She was just upset over what had happened earlier at the farm. Her fear was running wild. That was all. She repeated the words over and over in her mind, a mantra against the panic and the night.

Other words skittered across her thoughts:_ "On November 2nd 1983 – don't get out of bed. No matter what you hear, or what you see, promise me you won't get out of bed."_

She pushed what Dean Van Halen had told her--pushed her promise to a stranger she would never see again--into a far corner of her mind and began to build the walls behind which she would put her entire life before this moment. Tonight had been her last hunt. She would ask John to take her away, right now, and she would never look back. Those, those _images_ meant nothing, just her past reminding her that hunting destroyed everyone who entered that world. She, John, her family, they would be ordinary, _normal_, and they would stay untouched.

And if she thought she heard distant, mocking laughter, she told herself it was just her imagination and there was nothing in the dark that could hurt her anymore.


	3. Chapter 3: Largo et doloroso

**Disclaimer**: I've checked and they still aren't mine.

**A/N:** I'm still running behind in responding to reviews and you have my most abject apology, along with my thanks for all the lovely reviews. This section is the longest missing scene, a meeting between Mary, John and Daniel Elkins, the day after.

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_**3. Largo et doloroso**_

Daniel Elkins sat in his truck some distance from what he assumed was the Campbell house, waiting until the Sheriff's car pulled away from in front of the house and disappeared down the tree-lined street. It was the rare hunter who did not keep a low profile when the law was around. A dead werewolf looked like the human it once had been killed and only hunters knew where to look for a vamp's second set of teeth.

He exited the truck and headed for the front of the house. Though it was the height of the day, shadows suddenly seemed to reach for the dwelling. Elkins shook himself. _You've been in the game too long to spook like this. What's wrong with you?_

He had no answer other than instincts sharpened by surviving in a dangerous profession and the little hairs on the back of his neck. Neither was comfortable near the Campbell house. Reaching the front door, he knocked twice and waited. There was the sound of approaching footsteps and then the door was opened. A young man, maybe twenty, with short dark hair and brown eyes.

"Mr. Campbell?" Elkins asked.

The young man shook his head. "No. Did you have business with Samuel Campbell?"

Elkins' eyes narrowed. "And you are?"

For a moment their eyes locked in a silent battle of testosterone. Elkins was surprised that, behind the clean-cut, open features was a hint of steel. Whoever he was, he had been bloodied in the past.

Then the young man sighed. "Okay, that's fair, I guess. I'm John Winchester, Mary Campbell's fiancée." He looked down for a moment and his shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry to have to tell you but Samuel and Deanna Campbell are dead."

Elkins was stunned by the news. He'd heard of the Campbells; hunting families were rare. Campbell was supposed to be a hard man to get to know and not always particularly likeable but he and his wife were said to be damn good at the game. It could have been a natural death, but Elkins was sure, deep in his gut, it wasn't, and it had something to do with why that guy had wanted the Colt.

"Look, I hate to intrude at a time like this, but someone borrowed something from me and told me he'd leave it for me to pick up here. Could I speak with Mary Campbell? I really need it back."

Winchester finally came to a decision. "Wait here; I'll ask her." He closed the door firmly and heard the sound of footsteps fade away.

A few moments later, the footsteps returned and the door opened. John Winchester waved him inside. "She wants to talk to you. Alone." Winchester's tone expressed his disapproval of the idea. "Listen, her whole world has been ripped apart. _Don't_ do anything to upset her." The warning was clear.

Elkins nodded and stepped into the house. A few steps in and he could see into the dining room to his right. A slim, attractive young woman sat at the table, her blonde hair pulled back in an unkempt-looking ponytail, her eyes red and swollen. Next to her was the Colt and it took all his self-control not to charge over and grab it.

She raised her head as he moved toward the table and made a vague gesture toward a chair. As he sat, she waved at the Colt and asked, "Is this yours?"

He nodded and she sighed. "This is it, _the_ gun, right?"

He nodded again and her lips tightened. "Didn't do any good, did it? Doesn't matter if it can kill anything, if your quarry doesn't stand still and let you shoot it."

"Demons are tough to deal with, especially powerful ones," Elkins agreed. "Mostly, you gotta get lucky. They know you're there, they can keep you from being able to use the gun."

"And then they run, like the cowards they are," she said bitterly. She pushed the Colt toward him. "Take it."

Elkins picked it up, almost lovingly. "I don't know what made me trust that guy, but he was true to his word," he said, almost to himself. "He said he'd leave it here--."

"He didn't," Mary Campbell interjected. "It was just left behind when he," she hesitated then gave Elkins a bleak smile, "disappeared. One minute he was there, looking at me with such…well, looking at me, and then he was gone. The gun was on the ground where he'd been. I figured it was his and I took it back here with me, in case…" she shrugged. "It wasn't until just now I realized what it had to be; Dad--" she stopped and swallowed, "said Dean was going after _the_ Colt."

_Disappeared?_ Elkins leaned back in the chair, his hand still resting on the Colt. _What the hell?_ Curiousity blazed up, yet he had the distinct certainty that he would never know the answer.

Mary brushed away a tear and Elkins reached out and patted her hand gently. "Look, hunters, well, we're not always the most sociable group, but we've all been where you are now. I can give you the names of some people, good people, who'll help--," he stopped when she held up one hand, her expression becoming hard and determined.

"Thank you, but, no. I'm done. I was going to leave with John anyway, and now I'm more sure than ever that I don't want to have anything to do with hunting again!" She glanced around, pain and grief etched on her face. "John inherited his parents' house; we're going there. I won't stay another day here, in this house, in this world." She jumped to her feet and her voice rose, taking on an edge of hysteria. "This damn life took everything from me! It's not going to get one thing more. I _swear_!"

There was a movement to Elkins right and he turned slightly to see Winchester storm past him to envelope Mary Campbell in a hug. Elkins could hear him murmuring softly, gently, in her ear. Winchester raised his head and glared furiously at Elkins, the look saying clearly, "I warned you." The steel Elkins had seen before was there again, and something else. Something…shadowed. Elkins felt a sudden chill and he knew with absolute certainty that more had happened than just the deaths of Samuel and Deanna Campbell.

He stood abruptly, pulling the Colt to him. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'll let myself out."

He practically ran for his truck, clutching the Colt protectively. As the truck drove down the street, past the quiet homes and oh-so-_normal_ lives of the citizenry of Lawrence, he marveled again at how blind people could be--or maybe it should be, _wanted_ to be. How they could walk past the shadows and never see them.

He couldn't shake the feeling of dread. Twelve years later, when an older, harder John Winchester, who had already started to build a reputation among hunters, came to him to learn more about hunting, Elkins saw the rage and obsession in his eyes, the hallmarks of so many hunters. He taught Winchester about vampires and other things he'd fought and when Winchester asked if Elkins had ever heard about the legendary Colt, he looked deeply into John Winchester's eyes and saw there still the shadow he'd remembered, and he smiled and said it was just a fairytale.

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**A/N**: Okay, only one short coda left to go! I hope you've been enjoying the piece so far.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: Wishin' and hopin' and prayin'…and still nothin'

**A/N**: This is the last (very short) part of "Concerto." Sorry it took so long to post; I'd hoped to have it posted last week. Thank you to everyone who has been kin enough to review.

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**CONCERTO FOR LAWRENCE**

BY: **MistWraith**

_**4. Coda**_

They'd found a motel room after the disaster that had been the rugaru hunt, with Sam still staying silent and cold. Nothing Dean tried could get anything out of Sam more than a grunt. He finally gave up, grabbed a shower and hit the bed. He didn't think he'd be able to sleep but he was more tired from the rugaru attack than he'd realized and he fell off fairly quickly.

And he dreamed. A jumble of images and screams and then one face, Azazel as he looked in Wyoming, smiling nastily and saying, "How sure are you that what you brought back was 100% pure Sammy?" And then his house burning and his father and the years of training and hunting and giving up everything to his father's need for revenge and Sammy and his mother--with his father lying in the dirt beside her--_kissing_ the demon wearing his grandfather as a meatsuit and finally Azazel, still with his grandfather's face, laughing horribly and asking him one question.

"_How sure are you what she brought back was 100% pure John Winchester?"_

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**A/N**: Well, that's all there is. Thank you for sitting through the concert and I hope you enjoyed it!


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